Reinforcements in the Rain
Vrrrooooom.
With Banya Temple pinned into his navigation app, Kang Hyeong-seok was on the phone as he drove.
"Yes. I'd appreciate it if you could pass that along to the Teacher."
The voice flowing from the car's Bluetooth-linked speakers was Cheong-geum's.
"Would one person do?"
"Yes, one is enough. And if possible, someone serving a General Deity, or the Great Grandmother, would be even better."
"Ah... I understand."
He was asking that a single mudang be sent to the motel where Kim Jae-sik was staying.
"Please also tell them the room right next door is already reserved, so they can simply walk straight in."
Things could go wrong. The tiger might not be at Banya Temple, and Hyeong-seok might not make it back at all. This arrangement existed to secure Kim Jae-sik's safety even if the worst came to pass, and it struck him as a sound one. If a shaman kept watch from the room next door, then at least that much he could be at ease about.
"You said it was a Chang-gwi?"
"To be precise, it's a tiger. A Beomgwi."
And one that had devoured a great many people, at that.
"A beast spirit, then. That will not go easy on you."
Hyeong-seok nodded without thinking, his expression a tangle.
It was said the hardest things for a mudang to face were Tae-a-ryeong and beast spirits. Words did not reach them, and they shared a fierce, obsessive fixation besides — opponents of extraordinary difficulty. And among beast spirits, a tiger, one that kept Chang-gwi at its heel, no less. It was no wonder Cheong-geum's voice had sunk.
"Still, it must be done."
As if determined not to show what lay beneath, Hyeong-seok said it evenly, then sipped at the canned coffee wedged in the drink holder.
"I have the Sinjangkal. And lately I have even heard my Momjusin's voice."
"Pardon? You heard Him?"
Cheong-geum asked again, plainly startled, and Hyeong-seok ran his tongue across the coffee-flavored inside of his mouth before speaking.
"Yes. He told me to save myself. I believe I understand His intent."
It had all begun with a Chang-gwi. From the moment one chased him into seizing the sacred shaman bells, his life had changed beyond all recognition. Now, with a second divine token in hand, he had believed himself capable of settling a mere Chang-gwi on his own — but the board, it turned out, was rather larger than he had imagined.
"My patron, too, seems to believe I can face this. That must be why He sent me here."
"Then... I understand."
She would not presume to worry over Kang Hyeong-seok. That was the feeling carried in Cheong-geum's voice.
"Yes. Then I'll leave it to you exactly as I've described."
"Yes! I'll manage it one way or another, so don't you worry about a single thing, Young Master."
"Thank you."
Call ended, Hyeong-seok bent himself back to the road with a face of perfect stillness. The sky hung overcast, and though the hour was racing toward noon, the world felt dim and shadowed. And just as he had expected, thick ropes of rain soon began to fall, drumming against the windshield.
You're tired, aren't you? You've still got so many places left to go. If the tiger isn't at Banya Temple, you'll have to start the hunt all over again from bare ground. So rest. Just for now.
The downpour hammered down with tremendous persuasiveness, as though saying exactly that.
SHWAAAAAH!
He clicked his tongue at the construction dump truck barreling menacingly down the lane beside him.
Maybe I can sleep. Even a little. He had stayed up through the whole night without closing his eyes once, and all that coffee had his heart hammering away.
Vrrrooom.
Hyeong-seok eased onto the shoulder, killed the engine, and watched the rain come pouring down; it felt as though his body were sinking into the seat. He was, admittedly, at the point where rest had become necessary — but this was hardly a situation that allowed him to rest his mind.
Scrubbing hard at his eyes, he glared out at the deluge through bloodshot whites.
If only there were one person here to help me.
Why was it Shin Jeong-ah who sprang to mind first, of all people? But she hadn't come along in the first place — and she was still shaking off the shock of the Dokkaebi incident. Above all, it would take her time to reach this place.
SHAAAAAAH!
Amid the mindless deluge, Hyeong-seok unbuckled his seatbelt. Sleep first — even if only for a little while. If an accident happened while he was on the move, the reckoning afterward would be truly ugly. Restless as his heart was, he had just forced his eyes shut when —
VRRRING!
The phone went off with the damnable obliviousness of something that had no sense of timing whatsoever.
"Damn it all."
Hyeong-seok gave a crooked laugh and picked it up — and an unexpected name was glowing on the screen.
Yoon-sang?
The streamer who made his living off terror, and the young junior who had backed him up during the Dokkaebi incident. Turning the phone over in his hand a moment, Hyeong-seok pressed the call button.
"Yes! Hyung-nim! Have you been keeping well?"
"What's this about?"
"Aw, come on — I wanted to greet you properly! You have been well, haven't you?"
Hold on. A sudden thought brought the light back to Hyeong-seok's dimming eyes.
"Where are you?"
"Huh?"
"Right now — where are you? Are you mid-stream? Or gearing up for one?"
"Hyung-nim..."
Why did Yoon-sang have to go squeezing out a voice thick with emotion?
"Are you thinking of me right now? Wow."
"I said, where are you."
"I came out hunting for material, but it was a total bust. They said there was a haunted house, so I went — turns out the tipster must have sent me an old photo, because the place has already been demolished."
No — where are you.
Hyeong-seok frowned, then cocked an ear toward a faint sound bleeding through the phone. Rain. More precisely, the steady patter of drops drumming on an umbrella.
"You're in Chungbuk, aren't you?"
"Whoa! How did you know? Oh — right. You're a shaman."
Hyeong-seok heaved a long sigh and spoke.
"You didn't call me just to mine me for material, did you?"
"N-no, of course not! As if I'd only ever call you for that. It's a two-birds-one-stone thing, Hyung-nim. Ehehe."
Yoon-sang's tone drew his grin perfectly. Hyeong-seok glanced once at the rain lashing the windshield, then opened his mouth.
"I'm going to catch a ghost."
"Hyung-nim. Where are you?"
Sunny and bright until two seconds ago, Yoon-sang had transformed utterly, his voice suddenly grave.
"A big one. A tiger that keeps Chang-gwi — and it kills people. If you're not prepared for that, don't come."
"No, where ARE you?"
At a response that looked ready to chase him down even into hell itself, Hyeong-seok silently felt the corner of his mouth pull upward.
"Don't treat this as stream content. It's dangerous — it hurts people. So answer me plainly. Are you coming, or not?"
"I'm coming! Coming, absolutely, no question!"
Not a flicker of hesitation. Hyeong-seok exhaled through his nose and gave a small nod.
"I'm in Yeongdong."
"Yeongdong? Yeongdong in Chungbuk?"
"Yeah."
"I'll be taking public transport, so it's going to take me a while, okay? So, Hyung-nim — you absolutely cannot leave me behind and just go. Got it? You really, really must not leave me behind! Really!"
He clung so hard it bordered on frightening — enough to make Hyeong-seok wonder whether this was truly a good idea.
"Understood. But you may have to walk a fair distance."
"Puh-lease! Walking is my whole job. I crisscross every corner of this country — all eight provinces — chasing down stream material, you know."
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Then, Hyung-nim! The moment I reach Yeongdong, I'll call you again — so get some sleep."
"...What?"
"Your voice is just stuffed full of exhaustion, that's all. When I arrive, I'll wake you with a call, so until then you rest with an easy mind. Got it?"
For a moment, words failed him. Had it really shown that badly? Before long, Hyeong-seok burst out laughing and gave a short, "Yeah."
"I'm leaving this very second! Just trust me — whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it, and do it right."
With that confidence-brimming farewell, the call ended.
SHAAAAAAH—!
Watching the rain fall in clean, heavy sheets, Hyeong-seok let his heavy lids sink shut. Then he slipped into sleep just like that — his heart far lighter than it had been before the call with Yoon-sang.
Ring-ring-ring-ring.
Lee Geum-kyeong held a phone to her ear inside her shrine hall.
A mudang was needed. A great one, at that. She had heard Hyeong-seok's words relayed through Cheong-geum, and after no small stretch of deliberation, Lee Geum-kyeong was now placing a call to someone.
"Teacher... will this be all right?" Cheong-geum asked quietly.
"We are bound by karma. The least one can do is reach out and speak."
The person Geum-kyeong was calling was Park Sang-cheol of Gangneung — the master blacksmith who had forged the Sinjangkal. There was a reason she was reaching out to a man who was not even a mudang.
Click.
"Yes! Teacher!"
The voice was so bright it was hard to believe this was the same Park Sang-cheol who had spent all this time dodging Geum-kyeong's calls.
"Is your body keeping well?"
"Yes! Ever since the Exorcist came by, I've improved something wonderful. My leg has healed completely, too."
Gratitude toward Kang Hyeong-seok still soaked his voice. How could it not? This was the benefactor who had saved his daughter when her service to the Dokkaebi went terribly wrong.
"And your daughter — is she well?"
"Ah — yes!"
There was the briefest hesitation, but Park Sang-cheol answered with strength in his voice. Beside her, Cheong-geum, listening in on the conversation, narrowed her eyes in quiet suspicion, and Geum-kyeong pressed on.
"Good to hear. It's nothing dire — there is something I'd like to ask of you. Would you happen to have the time?"
"Um... might this be about my daughter?"
Geum-kyeong was silent a moment before she spoke.
"It is."
"I'm sorry. If it's that, I don't think I can manage."
"Did the Great Dokkaebi not promise to watch over your daughter? Has something happened?"
Kang Hyeong-seok had quelled the malevolent Dokkaebi through the Great Dokkaebi. And the Great Dokkaebi had sworn to protect Park Sang-cheol's daughter.
"No, nothing like that. These days she's recovered enough to travel for prayer rites, but... the thing is."
"Out with it, then."
"The truth is, she's left. Before dawn, she up and went, saying she suddenly had somewhere she had to be."
Geum-kyeong's brow creased — and then she burst into sudden, hearty laughter.
"So she received a calling."
"That's exactly what she said."
"Think nothing of it, then. I'm sorry to have shaken your heart with a needless call."
"Um, er — if it isn't rude of me to ask... was it because of the Exorcist that you called?"
Geum-kyeong folded one knee and rested her elbow upon it as she answered.
"It was. A request came in for a great mudang — and the Dokkaebi has moved first, it seems."
"Ah—!"
"She appears to have taken a liking to Hyeong-seok as well."
Relief spread across Geum-kyeong's face. A Chang-gwi or a tiger spirit might well run rampant, and to protect the one the tiger had marked, a great mudang was of course required. One who served the Great Dokkaebi was a talent beyond any argument.
"I'll send along rice cakes and liquor later. Share them with your daughter."
"Um... the Exorcist — he will be all right, won't he?"
"You're the one who forged his Sinjangkal. What is there to worry about?"
With a faint smile on her lips, Geum-kyeong drew the call to a close.
"So set your mind at ease."
Call finished, Geum-kyeong lowered the phone to the floor beside her and drew one long breath. Then she reached out to Cheong-geum, who was still watching her with worry brimming in her eyes.
The touch came without warning. Cheong-geum flinched, but Geum-kyeong stroked her hair with a calm, unhurried hand.
"You have nothing to fret over either. It will all resolve well."
"...Yes, Teacher."
Cheong-geum ducked her head as she answered, as though embarrassed to have her inner heart read so easily.
And at that very moment —
"Phew—!"
Arrived at the motel, Park Mi-ryeong opened her bag and began taking out her ritual implements. A gong painted with a Dokkaebi, and a cluster of small brass bells. Her shaman's robes.
This was Park Sang-cheol's daughter — the woman who now served the Great Dokkaebi.